London’s West End will be alive with Spanish spirit in the new year when the world premeire of new Ernest Hemingway adaptation Fiesta (The Sun Also Rises)opens at the Trafalgar Studio 2.
Based on the American author’s debut novel The Sun Also Rises, the show, which begins its London run on 5 February, is the story of two expat novelists, Jake and Robert, working in Paris in the 1920s. The arrival of the irresistible Lady Brett Ashley turns their lives upside down, before Jake’s bullfighting obsession takes them to Pamplona, where they encounter the beguiling bullfighter Romero and a violent spectacle unfolds.
This new production, adapted by Alex Helfrecht and Sam Snape, uses live jazz from the Trio Farouche, Sonja Perreten’s choreography and performances by Gideon Turner (Arcadia, National Theatre), Jye Frasca (Jersey Boys, Prince Edward theatre), Josie Taylor (My Name Is Rachel Corrie, Royal Court) and Jack Holden (War Horse, New London theatre), to tell its passionate tale, promising the actors will be “saturated with red wine as it spills from the set” to capture the spirit of Pamplona’s Fiesta.
Fiesta (The Sun Also Rises) arrives at the Whitehall venue following the conclusion of the final Donmar Trafalgar season that ends with The Silence Of The Sea (10 January to 2 February) and is currently presenting Strindberg’s Dance Of Death.
While Fiesta (The Sun Also Rises) plays in the intimate Trafalgar Studio 2, the larger Trafalgar Studio 1 will host a new Jamie Lloyd-directed production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, featuring the star of hit films Atonement, The Last King Of Scotland and X-Men: First Class, James McAvoy, as the flawed Scottish antihero.